!st half/2nd half champs

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  • fugazi
    MVP
    • Apr 2003
    • 3749

    #1

    !st half/2nd half champs

    Every season, the Majors go through a period starting around August when it becomes apparent that over half the league is only used for sorting out the victors. It seems difficult to believe that SanFran, Washington, and Kansas City, among others, are trying to win as much as the leaders do in the waning months...

    I was wondering if returning to a 1stHalf/2ndHalf thing would perhaps fix this, and add a little juice to the July to October period.

    For example...
    The 1st Half winner of a Division would play the 2nd Half winner to determine the division champ...should a team win both the 1st and 2nd half, they would automatically advance.
    This fails to work with 3 divisions unless a wildcard is involved...this means going back to two divisions or making a wildcard...for the latter, I think you could have, say, the team with the best overall record that did not advance to the 2nd round...

    After the All-Star Break, every team would, in a sense, be back in it...this would allow teams that had a bad first half really make a push in the second, instead of being predestined for the formality of playing out the schedule for 5 months.

    I am going to try to take a look at some 1st half v. 2nd half numbers from the past few years and see what might have shown up...there may be nothing of note, but lots of awful or young or hurt first half teams go nuts in the 2nd half...imagine what it would do to a team like Pittsburgh with some of its talent, or Florida...managing the team would be more crucial, as well...
    Australian Rules Football...just sayin'
  • fugazi
    MVP
    • Apr 2003
    • 3749

    #2
    Re: !st half/2nd half champs

    I looked at 05, and 06...
    note: I did not figure out the exact W/L for each half, but instead simply used win totals between the two halves...since at the break not all teams have played the same number of games, these results could be wrong, but the greatest variance I found was by 3 games...

    2005
    Actual
    NL: Atlanta, StL, SanD, and Houston (WC)

    1st half: Washington, StL, SanD
    2nd half: Philly, Houston, SanFran....

    would have been a heartbreaker for the Braves, as their overall was better, but the Nats and Phils would have won the halves...maybe this is where a WC would come in...

    2006 Actual
    AL: NY, Minn, Oak, Det (WC)
    NL: NY, StL, LA, SanD

    1st Half:
    AL: Bos, Det, Oak/Tex (tie)
    NL: NY, StL, SanD
    2nd Half
    AL: NY, Minn, Oak (Angels out by two games)
    NL: NY, Hou (PITTSBURGH out by 2.5 games!), LA

    Obviously, this would be a little kooky at times, and might result in some robberies of sorts, but the potential for energizing other teams seems really high...I mean, imagine if Pittsburgh was playing as though they were only a few games out down the stretch in 2006?

    Schedules would probably have to be adjusted, with all teams playing the same number of games before the break, whether this is 81 or not. Also, schedules would have to be evened out, which might mean ridding ourselves of the unbalanced schedule...New York should have to play Boston as many times in the 1st as in the 2nd half...etc.

    It will never happend...but I think it would be great...
    Australian Rules Football...just sayin'

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    • Lintyfresh85
      Where have I been?
      • Jul 2002
      • 17492

      #3
      Re: !st half/2nd half champs

      I think that's how Single A Carolina league does it...
      http://flotn.blogspot.com

      Member of the Official OS Bills Backers Club

      Originally posted by trobinson97
      Hell, I shot my grandmother, cuz she was old.

      Comment

      • jake44np
        Post Like a Champion!
        • Jul 2002
        • 9563

        #4
        Re: !st half/2nd half champs

        What do you meen bring it back?
        They only did it one year and that was because there was a strike.
        ND Season Ticket Holder since '72.

        Comment

        • CMH
          Making you famous
          • Oct 2002
          • 26203

          #5
          Re: !st half/2nd half champs

          Originally posted by Superstar
          I think that's how Single A Carolina league does it...
          A good number of Minor Leagues do this.

          It's an interesting idea but I doubt we'll ever see it in the Majors.
          "It may well be that we spectators, who are not divinely gifted as athletes, are the only ones able to truly see, articulate and animate the experience of the gift we are denied. And that those who receive and act out the gift of athletic genius must, perforce, be blind and dumb about it -- and not because blindness and dumbness are the price of the gift, but because they are its essence." - David Foster Wallace

          "You'll not find more penny-wise/pound-foolish behavior than in Major League Baseball." - Rob Neyer

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